On a Whole Food Plant-Based Diet

On a whole food plant-based diet you can eat almost every unprocessed whole plant food available on the planet for example; root vegetables, green leafy vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, herbs, spices, legumes, nut and seed milks & yoghurts, fermented whole plant foods, and sprouted seeds, grains, and legumes etc. (Please see my photo gallery of whole food plant-based meals below.)

The only things which are avoided on a whole food plant-based diet by definition are animal products and junk food. A whole food plant-based diet is also low in added oils, salt and sugar.

Is a whole food plant-based diet restrictive in any way? Well, think about it this way; how many ‘foods’ do people on the standard UK (SUK) diet or the standard American diet (SAD) really consume each day in terms of variety? The answer is; milk, cow, sheep, pig, chicken, fish, eggs, white flour, sugar and salt (along with some highly processed oils, potatoes and tomatoes). This means that just ten disease promoting items make up the vast majority of most people’s diets in terms of percentage. Yes there are some other minor components maybe a few spices, herbs demented mushrooms, cremated onions, and flaccid lettuce :-) Whereas a whole food plant-based diet encourages people to experiment with hundreds of health promoting foods in thousands of combinations opening up a cornucopia of new and delicious taste sensations! :-)

Here’s another way of looking at a whole food plant-based diet. Imagine as an experiment that the only ‘foods’ available to you were chicken or cow or pig or sheep or fish (i.e. all types of plant foods were unavailable), how long do you think you would survive on these flesh ‘food’ sources alone? How long before you would become bored? Now imagine the opposite; animal flesh and milk were unavailable but you had access to every plant food on the planet, how long do you think you would survive on these? And do you think you would ever become bored?

In terms of nutrition (and taste), which of the above mentioned food groups (animal or plant) contain the most vitamins, minerals, enzymes, fibre, phytochemicals, antioxidants, water, beneficial bacteria, and variety of flavours? And which of the above food groups contain the most cholesterol, trans-fats, saturated fat, IGF-I, cancer promoting hormones, antibiotics, viral fragments, pus, coagulated blood, bacterial endotoxins, Neu5gc, heavy metals, vaccines, parasites, faecal matter, and mycoplasma?

I’ve been promoting a whole food plant-based diet for some time now as a treatment and preventative for rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic diseases. I’m using it myself as the primary treatment for my own RA, along with a few additional therapies in the form of probiotics, algae-based DHA supplementation, vitamin B12 supplementation and so on. Thanks to this approach I don’t need any form of medication for pain or inflammation etc., In fact in the last three and half decades living with rheumatoid arthritis I’ve never taken any long-term medication, just an occasional steroid injection into a joint (before I knew better!).

Out of everything I’ve tried over a period of nearly 38 years, a whole food plant-based diet has proven to be the best therapy for my rheumatoid arthritis. It’s also extremely healthy and healing in general and has cured several other problems with which I had suffered in the past such as asthma and hayfever.

The main issue in recommending a whole food plant-based diet to others lies in addressing their fears of impending restriction and loss of existing favourite foods :-) Other issues include the concern that it will require a lot more time to prepare meals and that the cost will be too high. With this in mind I’d like to show you photos of a few of the whole food plant-based meals that I eat each day which are extremely enjoyable, cost-effective and very quick to make. These are not recipes or posh photos of gourmet meals, I just want to give a real-life flavour (pun intended) of what I eat each day on a whole food plant-based diet which is specifically designed to fight rheumatoid arthritis. Bear in mind that for the majority of people who are not fighting a chronic disease, their WFPB diet would be much more varied and even more exciting :-)

Starch-based meal high in fibre with soymilk yoghurt, mung bean sprouts and cherry smoothies - ideal support for my friendly gut bacteria :-)

An important part of a whole food plant-based diet is to include vegetables (and fruits) with lots of different colours to provide as many nutrients and antioxidants as possible; a wide range of colours = a wide range of antioxidants.

An anti-inflammatory snack of strawberries and blueberries, I find that this helps to reduce joint pain to some degree.

Wet cooking methods are always preferable to dry cooking methods, here I'm steaming sweet potato, purple carrots, mushrooms and white potatoes in order to retain maximum nutrition.

A four course whole food plant-based meal :-) steamed veg, two fruit salads and two blueberry smoothies - yum!

Preparing a green smoothie with added berries for flavour and complimentary nutrition.

A starch-based main meal of rice, quinoa and chickpeas with a tofu, mushroom and onion sauce.

Lots of steamed green veggies with butter beans, peas and wild rice, and mashed potatoes mixed with quinoa and avocado.

A quinoa-based meal with tempeh and lightly steamed veggies. Don't forget to take a B12 supplement once or twice a week.

One of my favourites, potato curry! :-) With the blueberry, cherry and rolled oat pudding for desert. The berry smoothies will be sipped over several hours.

Another of my favourites, potatoes with a sweet curry sauce. A couple of slices of wholemeal sourdough bread with miso paste on, to clean the plate at the end of the meal :-)

Rice and beans with steamed veg and extra rice! :-) And a small salad. The smoothies are mixed berry, dates and spinach.

Starch-based meal of butter beans, black beans and buckwheat with a fruit salad and some sprouted mung beans. The smoothies are blueberry, dates and soymilk.

50-50 mashed potatoes and mashed beans mixed together, with tempeh and steamed veg. Rocket (the side salad) has one of the highest antioxidant scores of any leafy veg and even beats kale! :-)

Fill the colander with chopped veg and steam for about fifteen minutes and you have the base of a whole food plant-based meal.

Preparing kale based green smoothie with some ginger and turmeric - great for rheumatoid arthritis sufferers.

One of my favourite whole food snacks/treats; grilled potato slices with whole fruit jam on top ready to dip into a bean and miso paste :-)

Preparing for a long working session; green leafy salad, mixed berry salad, mixed bean meal, three blueberry and spinach smoothies and a flask full of steamed veg for later :-)

I love steamed cherry tomatoes! Here I have steamed white and sweet potatoes on a bed of buckwheat with steamed broccoli, some nice wholemeal sourdough bread, fruit salad and some mung bean sprouts... Yum! :-)

Not a curry this time :-) this is steamed potatoes and mushrooms with a black bean, potato, miso and onion sauce on top.

Herbs and spices are generally anti-inflammatory and form an important part of a whole food plant-based diet. Here I've made a chilli and bean sauce for my steamed potatoes and veg :-)

Rolled oat, cherry, soy milk and date pudding with blueberries. This makes a great breakfast provides a lot of energy, fibre and great nutrition.

A small snack! :-) One of the benefits of a whole food plant-based diet (low in added salt, oil and sugar) is that you can eat as much as you like and still move towards your ideal body weight.

Mixed beans, mushrooms and rice a nice simple starch-based meal with some blueberries and delicious mixed berry smoothies for later.

Steamed potatoes and mushrooms with a miso, nutritional yeast and chickpea sauce on top. Very quick to make, delicious and very filling.

Maximum starch-based meal! :-) If this doesn't fill you up nothing will! Black beans and butter beans on a bed of buckwheat with steamed potatoes and cherry tomatoes.

Preparing a powerful anti-inflammatory smoothie; mixed leafy greens, mixed berries, figs, cucumber, dates, turmeric and ginger - good stuff and it works for me :-)

I’m going to start producing meal preparation videos with recipes in order to demonstrate how easily and cost effectively a whole food plant-based diet can be adopted. I’d like to show some of the many advantages of a WFPB diet such as the ability to buy whole plant foods in bulk such as legumes, grains, and seeds which I believe helps to make it the most cost-effective diet available to the largest number of people across the world.

Adopting a whole food plant-based diet is certainly the best insurance policy against developing the majority of modern chronic diseases but if you want to maximise the benefits there are certain whole plant (and fungi) foods that should be included in the diet on a daily basis.

Dr Michael Gregor has produced a daily dozen list of specific food subgroups and serving sizes as a guideline or reference for people which can be downloaded, printed and stuck on the fridge :-) His list is based on decades of experience, research and practice so I give it a lot of credit.
Dr Joel Fuhrman has produced a similar list which he describes as G-BOMBS. His list has an emphasis towards fighting and preventing cancer however it offers the same benefits in the prevention of most other chronic diseases and again Dr Fuhrman’s recommendations are based on decades of research and clinical experience.

Both Dr Gregor’s and Dr Fuhrman’s lists overlap and complement each other and provide the perfect answer not only to the question of: “What ‘can’ I eat on a whole food plant-based diet?”, but also to the question of: “What ‘should’ I eat on a whole food plant-based diet?”.